This invention relates to chair structures and, more particularly, to chairs having detachable backs.
Conventional chairs are bulky and therefore expensive to ship and difficult to store. The volume occupied by an assembled chair usually is far greater than the volume occupied by the same chair in a disassembled condition. Accordingly, various proposals have heretofore been advanced for making chairs which can be supplied as a kit of compact disassembled components and which can be readily assembled at the ultimate point of use. One example of such disassembled chairs may be seen in my co-pending application Ser. No. 034,892, filed Apr. 3, 1987.
Although the manufacture and the sale of disassembled chairs affords considerable savings and convenience in shipping and distributions costs, and facilitates storage by the consumer, such chair structures heretofore have not been truly satisfactory in all respects. For example, the assembled chairs have not had the strength to withstand loads imposed on them in service, without bending or deflecting unduly, and do not provide the user with the feeling of rigidity and strength found in high quality conventional chair structures. In addition disassembled chair structures heretofore have required user-provided tools and significant mechanical skills for assembly, making their assembly difficult for consumers having little or no mechanical aptitude. Also, manufacturing tolerances in the chain manufacturing field frequently result in misalignments between parts requiring assembly that makes such assembly difficult to accomplish in the absence of special provisions to facilitate the same.
It is, therefore, a primary object of the present invention to provide an improved chair structure which is partially disassemblable, so as to provide for compact storage, but that requires no tools or mechanical skills on the part of the user to reassemble the chair.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved chair structure that is partially disassemblable to allow compact storing but has suffficient strength, when assembled, to withstand normal loads found in service and to provide the user with the feeling of rigidity and strength that the user expects to find in high quality conventional chair constructions.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide features in an assemblable chair structure that will facilitate assembly of the chair structure notwithstanding misalignment, due to excessive manufacturing tolerances, of the parts being assembled.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the following description proceeds.